Foodborne illness remains a public health problem in the United States despite substantial efforts to ensure the integrity and wholesomeness of the food supply by the food industry and multiple governmental agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are approximately 48 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, resulting in over 125,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths (Scallan et al., Emerg. Infect. Dis. (2011) 17:7-15). It has been estimated that each case of foodborne illness has an economic impact of $1,068, which equates to an overall economic burden of over $50 billion annually (Scharff, J. Food Prot., (2012) 75:123-31). The number one cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States is non-thyphoidal Salmonella, which causes over 1 million illnesses a year; resulting in over 19 thousand hospitalizations and 380 deaths (Scallan et al, supra).
In the 1970s outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with produce were rare and accounted for approximately 1% of the total cases. However, by the 1990s the frequency of cases associated with produce increased to 12% (Sivapalasingam et al., J. Food Prot. (2004) 67:2342-53) and by 2003 that number increased to 30% (De Jong, A., Workshop towards Microbiol. Safety of Vegetables, Oct. 29, 2007, Marijkeweg 20, Wageningen). Produce can become contaminated with pathogenic bacteria at any point from planting to consumption, but is often thought of in terms of pre- and post-harvest contamination. Pre-harvest contamination occurs from the time the seed is planted until the crop is harvested and post-harvest contamination occurs during processing, shipping, and storage. Pre-harvest sources of contamination include soil, irrigation water, wild animals (rodents, birds, insects, etc.), improperly composted manure fertilizers, human harvesters, etc. Post-harvest sources include harvesting equipment and personnel, wash and cooling waters, shipping containers, processing equipment and personnel, etc. (Beuchat, L. R., Microbes and Infect., (2002) 4:413-23).
Because of the increasing frequency of foodborne illness associated with fresh produce and the many sources of contamination what is needed in the art are methods to eliminate human pathogenic bacteria from colonizing produce both pre- and post-harvest.
Fortunately, as will be clear from the following disclosure, the present invention provides for these and other needs.